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Mobile is Reaching a Crossover Point: Are You Ahead of, or Behind, the Curve?

Aug 03, 2017

by Bob Ashenbrenner

As
things advance, whether it is products or techniques, there comes a “crossover
point” where the reason to go with the new version is compelling enough to warrant
fast adoption. It is at the crossover point where these products are “proven”
and gain real traction, often winning a majority of the market share very quickly.
Think about flat-panel screens: They hit the market in the 1990s, with high
prices and smaller sizes. Though early adopters “had to have” this exciting new
technology, most people were laggards, okay with buying and using the older CRT
(or tube) TVs for a while longer. Sometime around 2005, however, the flat-panel
screens hit a crossover point: Their size, price, and image quality
crossed-over the then-ubiquitous CRTs. Within a couple of years, CRTs were dead
as a product.

Today,
we’re seeing a similar occurrence in the Utility sector. I was recently reviewing
Electric Light and Power and was intrigued that New Jersey (my home
state) was #5 on their
Top 10 list of solar power states. That’s right, the most densely populated state
in the U.S. – though not the sunniest – is spending
money to put solar panels on most electric poles throughout the state. That indicates
to me that the price of a kilowatt delivered by solar panels has just reached a
crossover point.

Now that doesn’t mean that the traditional grid is going to
be dead in a few years. It just means that crossover points are significant
drivers of business changes, and can be critical indicators of market
opportunities. For example, this solar power crossover has created many changes
for the power grid in North America, Europe and some Far East countries. While
electricity is electricity, the grid needs a power generation system that can
react quickly to demand fluctuations. Traditional generators are designed to
react immediately to changes in load, but solar “generators” – which come on
based on the sun and weather – are not designed to respond to “need”. So, utilities
are bringing everything from large-scale batteries to new control equipment online
to keep up with a subsequent crossover point in how they must manage and
maintain their networks. The
Digitalization of Power, as it’s called.

You may be asking why this matters to you, especially if
you’re not in the TV or utility business.

Companies with highly mobile workforces – those in field
service and industrial sectors particularly – are also experiencing a
“digitalization” crossover point related to the use of mobile devices. Enough “good” mobile computer choices exist on
the market; virtually any organization with mobile workers is immediately
benefitting from even the most basic device deployments. Paper-based service
tickets, email dispatch and written tickets sent to the back-office for
inputting and invoicing are now passé, as mobile devices and software have
automated these areas. There is even a crossover occurring in mobile computer
form factor dominance, with tablets proving their ability to increase wrench
time (productivity), improve customer satisfaction, and reduce account
receivables even better than laptops. But there’s another looming “crossover
point” that we’re seeing with regards to workforce mobility, and it’s being
driven by the impending crossover of more advanced digital technologies (IoT,
Industry 4.0, wearables, etc.)

If you’re already investing in rugged tablet PCs that run
Windows OS or professional-grade Android and are proven interoperable with a
host of current and future software, peripherals and devices (i.e.
IoT),
then you’re ahead of the curve. But, if you’re not, then don’t lose sight of
what’s happening around you. As Xplore’s
Tom Kost noted just last week: “
complacency stalls innovation, which stalls industrial and societal advancement.” Don’t
get complacent with the “CRT” of mobile solutions (i.e. using a consumer-grade
device in a professional environment). Pay attention to when a new technology,
a new process, or a new business model “crosses over” in the mainstream, and be
ready to embrace it within your own business environment.

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